National Association of Collegiate Esports Partners with High School Esports League

The National Association of Collegiate Esports is expanding into high school in a new partnership with the High School Esports League. This joint partnership will “create a stronger path for high school esports athletes to move into the collegiate ranks as scholarship athletes.”

“Coaches and esports directors at NACE member colleges and universities will gain access to HSEL’s Discord server in order to communicate directly to students interested in competing in college. Additionally HSEL will work to promote the free utilization of NACE’s recruitment platform through BeRecruited for all of its users.”

Collegiate esports has been expanding rapidly in the last several years. While organizations like CSL, Tespa, and EGF have focused on collegiate esports competitions, NACE has f0cused on the back-end of the scene—establishing official varsity esports programs on college campuses—as well. Currently, NACE has memberships at 67 different varsity programs across North America, a large majority of all such programs.

HSEL has a similar drive, but at the high school level. The league currently offers 13 competitive titles to its 475 partner clubs, making it one of the largest leagues in the world.

Building this traditional infrastructure around esports is an important element into integrating into the mainstream.

The focus of both organizations on structural expansion makes this partnership particularly effective. NACE has a clear benefit with direct communication paths to HSEL’s massive playerbase, while HSEL can point its members straight to NACE’s recruitment platform. Building this traditional infrastructure around esports is an important element to integrate into the mainstream.

That said, there’s still plenty of obstacles for collegiate esports. Our interview with NACE’s executive director Michael Brookes revealed his belief that not only were there regulatory hurdles for the scene, but also reluctant athletic directors. That said, the NCAA partnered with Intersport to investigate esports late last year, indicating some initial inroads to the traditional collegiate sports scene.

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